


it's brighter now

by nevernevergirl



Series: the war is over and we are beginning [6]
Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Babies, Established Relationship, F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Kid Fic, Post canon, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:15:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24687484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevernevergirl/pseuds/nevernevergirl
Summary: Gert's a few years and several lifetimes of trauma past keeping secrets from Chase. They're past that. They're better than that.So she should probably tell him about the pregnancy tests hidden under the sink.
Relationships: Chase Stein/Gertrude Yorkes
Series: the war is over and we are beginning [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685389
Comments: 8
Kudos: 50





	it's brighter now

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the same universe as my other post-canon fics—I was prompted on tumblr to write Gert and Chase finding out she's pregnant with their first child. You don't really have to have read the others to get this, but their daughter is in a few already written fics.

"I should lock you in the bathroom."

Nico's got the staff in her hand, and her eyebrows are raised halfway to a threat. Gert stands her ground, crossing her arms with every bit of defiant false confidence she can muster.

"Right. And what spell's going to make me pee on a stick?"

Nico tilts her head, thinking. She grins after a moment. "How about _mommy and—"_

"No!" Gert drops the bag in her hand, casting a furtive glance at the staff. Nick smirks, smugly.

"Dude, seriously. Just take one. You have, like—" she takes the bag, glancing inside. "Seven to choose from? Gert, what the _fuck_."

Gert shrugs. "It's good to be sure."

"Can't be sure if you don't take them."

"I mean, eventually I'm gonna know either way, so—"

"You have until next weekend," Nico says, tapping the end of the staff against the floor, impatiently. "Look, I'm not going to say anything to Chase, okay? That's up to you. But you can't run away from this."

"I could try." Gert mutters. Nico holds up the staff, and Gert groans. "Okay, _fine_. I'll take it by next weekend."

Gert doesn't take the test by the next weekend. She has, like, 11 of them now, safe and snug and unopened under the kitchen sink in the apartment she shares with Chase, because they share the cabinet in the bathroom.

She sits in their bedroom when Chase isn't home, staring at her abdomen. It probably wouldn't look any different either way, not yet. She keeps staring until she gets sick of staring and changes into a loose sweater.

Old Lace lets out a noise somewhere in the neighborhood of a sigh.

"Shut up," she mumbles. "I didn't want to ruin the visit with everyone."

Old Lace taps her tail against the ground. Gert rolls her eyes.

"No, I'm not ignoring Nico's calls, we _just_ got back."

Lace roars, gently—not loud enough for the neighbors to hear. 

"I _can't_ just take it now, I—"

She stops, staring. She tries to ignore how smug Lace looks, because that shouldn't even be possible, she's a fucking dinosaur. 

"Oh, fuck. I have to talk to Chase first," she says, closing her eyes. 

It's weird to think now that there was a time when it was _hard_ to include Chase in her life. Talking to him about her anxiety, about her meds, about the way she'd close her eyes at night and will herself to dream about air conditioned college dorm rooms wasn't second nature. It wasn't like she didn't _want_ to include him, but sometimes she'd have to work to think about it because she'd been doing it on her own for so long. Sometimes the idea of having that conversation turned her stomach into knots. Sometimes, she'd convince herself she'd say something that was too much, and sometimes? She'd picture him leaving.

And one time, he would. 

But they hadn't really been _Chert_ yet, not really. Those messy, scared kids who didn't know what to do with their love for each other are only a few years in the past, but they feel so _young_ , so far away. They've both done the work. She used to think being in a relationship was about making room for another person, but she hasn't had to shove any part of herself aside to let chase in. It's like who she is grew to include him.

It feels weird to know something he doesn't know. It feels backwards and it makes little currents of anxiety buzz through the top layers of her skin.

There's an easy, stupid simple solution to that.

Gert comes home early, she takes a deep breath, and she makes a fucking salad.

Chase picks at the arugula dubiously. 

"You're sure no one died?"

Gert sighs. 

"Yes, Chase."

"Or got ressurected? Or sent to hell or abducted by aliens?"

Gert glares at him and stabs a gluten-free crouton with her fork.

"I told you, I got home early and wanted to make dinner."

"You don't know how to cook. You burned frozen pizza last week."

"Yeah, that's why I made salad," she says, reasonably. "You like salad. You ordered one the other day."

"It came with my burger," he says, frowning. "Wait, are we going vegan again?"

"I'm already vegan," she says, throwing a crouton at him. It lands on the table, and Chase pops it in his mouth.

"You stole my bacon at brunch yesterday," he says, crunching. She wrinkles her nose.

"It doesn't count if you ordered it."

"Saying it like it's true doesn't actually make it true."

"Does too."

"Does not."

"Does t—"

"Gert," he sets his fork down and sighs. "I know when something's up with you. You know I know that."

She closes her eyes, lets herself feel the guilt of it for a moment. 

And then she looks at him. He doesn't look mad. He looks like he knows she doesn't do this. They don't do this, not anymore. 

He just looks like he knows her. 

"I swear nobody died, or got ressurrected, or did any interplanetary or interdimensional travel," she says. She smiles, even though it's a little forced.

"But something's up," he says. He takes her hand, and she bites her lip.

"My period's late," she blurts out. "Like. A couple of weeks. A little more than a couple of weeks."

He stares, frozen. His hand tightens on hers, just slightly. She kind of wants to google symptoms of shock. Instead, she squeezes back before letting go, standing up.

He startles, eyes following her as she walks to the sink, grabbing the bag of tests. 

"Um," he says.

"I haven't taken them yet," she says. He frowns.

"Why not?"

"Because then I'd know the answer?" she says, wryly. She shakes her head, walking back over, standing in front of him. "It was weird I hadn't told you yet."

"I mean, it's your body," he says, quickly, and she smiles a little. "I don't have to—"

"No, I know, I didn't mean like that," she says. "I just. Tell you things. Pretty much everything. I guess I didn't want to know something this big if you didn't know."

He watches her for a moment before nodding. He glances at the bag in her hand.

"Thats, uh. A lot of answers," he says, raising his eyebrows. She blushes, and he grins, teasingly.

"Shut up," she says, picking up a test and throwing it at him. He laughs, and pulls her into his lap.

When he presses a soft kiss to her lips, she feels okay for the first time in a little more than two weeks.

An hour, a chugged glass of water, and two peed-on sticks later, they're sitting next to each other on the floor in the bathroom, sticks pushed just out of sight. The timer on Gert's phone ticks down at an agonizingly slow pace. 

"This is weird," Chase says, whispering the words like talking too loudly would cause a disturbance in the force, or whatever.

"Yeah," Gert leans her head against his shoulder. She tries to focus her gaze on the sink.

"We're used to weird, though," he says, like he's talking himself through it. "We live with a dinosaur."

"Yeah, this is a little different than a dinosaur."

"Yeah. Smaller."

She snorts, and elbows him lightly in the side for good measure. 

"Are you trying to distract me?" she asks.

"Kind of." He shrugs. "I think I'm mostly processing."

She bites her lip, shifting so she's sitting cross-legged, facing him.

"Tell me what you're thinking?"

"I don't know," he says. His eyes are wide and honestly. "I'm thinking...we've literally been to hell and back, I guess?"

She smiles a little. "I don't think our collectively trauma points directly translate into being able to handle this specific situation."

"Yeah, yeah, I get that," he says, waving a hand. "I just mean. We've figured a lot of shit out before."

"Including actual death," she says, grudgingly. 

"And this is kind of the opposite of that," he says, triumphantly.

"I really don't think that's how it works," she says, but she smiles anyway. "We've never talked about it."

"I've never really thought about it," he says, shrugging. "I mean, we were in high school, and then—"

"Everything," she says, nodding. "Do you want to? Talk about it, I mean?"

He watches her for a moment. "Yeah," he says."Yeah, I think I do."

The timer beeps. They watch each other for moment, before reaching, in unison, to grab a test each.

"Holy shit," Chase says.

"Holy shit," Gert agrees. 

She finds his hand; he laces their fingers together. They hold on tightly, together.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still taking prompts on [tumblr](https://yorkesteins.tumblr.com/)/come talk to me on [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/tracingaladder) if you'd like! 
> 
> PS pls check out this list of [Black Lives Matter resources and donate/sign petitions if you can!!!!!](https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/)


End file.
